Hyderabad, August 03: The historic Golconda fort and Charminar have recorded a healthy stream of foreign tourists in 2010-11, belying the current political uncertainty in the state. In fact, foreign tourists to these destinations have more than doubled in the past one year, as per the figures released by the government of India’s department of culture on Monday.
According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) data available through the sale of centralised tickets at the entrance of each of these monuments, Golconda fort is the most preferred tourist destination with a dramatic increase in the number of foreign tourists from a mere 675 in 2009-10 to 19,542 in 2010-11. Similarly, 13,139 foreigners have visited Charminar against 5,552 in 2009-10. These two monuments continue to woo domestic tourists in lakhs with visitors reaching a new high of 32.74 lakh in 2010-11 against 12.61 lakh in 2009-10.
The number of foreign tourists, who visited the eight important ASI sites in the state – Golconda fort, Charminar, Nagarjunakonda, four-storeyed rock-cut cave temple at Undavalli, Warangal fort, Amaravathi in Guntur, Chandragiri fort in Chittoor district and Guntupalli -in 2010-11 was 34,547 against a meagre 6,284 in 2009-10. The three most famous Buddhist sites — Nagarjunakonda, Guntupalli and Amaravathi- have each attracted over a lakh domestic tourists.
There are 137 ancient monuments/sites listed in the Hyderabad circle (Andhra Pradesh) by the ASI.
AP continues to hold the top slot in the country by recording 15.58 crore domestic tourists last year, thanks to pilgrims heading to Tirupati.
–Agencies